Israeli forces detain 8 Palestinians in overnight raids

April 7, 2017 5:24 P.M. (Updated: April 7, 2017 8:47 P.M.)

(File)

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces detained at least eight Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank between Thursday and Friday, Israeli and Palestinian sources said, as an organization estimated that more than 1,300 Palestinians had been detained in the first three months of 2017 alone.

Malik Hamid, 23, was shot and detained on Thursday after his car ran into two Israeli soldiers at an intersection near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra, killing 20-year-old Elchay Teharlev and injuring the other.

An Israeli army spokesperson only confirmed one overnight detention in Silwad.

In the northern city of Nablus, locals said that Israeli forces detained Islam al-Zbeidi and Muhammad al-Bukhari.

The army spokesperson said three Palestinians were detained in Nablus, adding that one was a “Hamas operative.”

In the Bethlehem district, locals said that Israeli forces detained Muhammad Omar Mislit.

The detentions came as the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies said that Israeli authorities had detained some 1,360 Palestinians in the first three months of 2017.

Riyad al-Ashqar, the spokesman of the center, said that the detained included 225 minors, 50 women and girls, six lawmakers, 23 medical patients and people with disabilities, three academics, 15 journalists, and hundreds of Palestinians who had previously been imprisoned by Israel.

Israeli raids in Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps are a daily occurrence in the occupied West Bank. The UN recorded an average of 95 weekly raids in the occupied West Bank in 2016, and a biweekly average of 78 raids thus far in 2017.

According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, 6,500 Palestinians were held in Israeli prisons as of January.